DAIRY FARMING 

    IN DAIRY FARMING ANIMALS LIKE COWS , BUFFALOES, SHEEP AND GOATS ARE REARED BECAUSE THESE ARE MILK AND MEAT PRODUCING ANIMALS. THESE ANIMALS ARE REARED GENERATION AFTER GENERATION.I The life of every organism or idea begins with birth; this comfortable constant stands as one of the purest processes on the dairy farm. A farmer witnesses hundreds of births over his/her lifetime yet never tires of the bright promise shining in freshly opened eyes, the warm reassurance of maternal instinct, and the unrivaled security of mother and young. Thus the family farm stands as an extended family as the births of children intertwine with those of animals, creating a rich and hopeful setting. Birthing is especially relevant on the dairy farm as it initiates the cows to produce milk. The maternity pen on Starcross Dairy consisted of a softly bedded, southern-facing refuge surrounded by haystacks and barn swallow nests. Whether a bitter January afternoon or pleasant September evening, my family always participated in the birth of calves. Occasionally, complications would occur, and we would sit tense and worried as my father guided a breech birth or strained with a hiplock, but typically our amazed smiles reflected the joy of this slippery, tender process. Babies of many species frolicked wildly along our fence lines. Goat kids bounded haphazardly among the alfalfa plants, blindly attempting to see over the leafy barriers; chaotic piglets swarmed about an equally disorganized sow eager to locate a milky teat; and overconfident kittens explored tunnels in the haystacks stalking and wrestling for hours. A farmer cannot help but feel grounded and secure when such hopeful and gentle life signs emerge throughout the year. Perhaps an even warmer feeling arises as the farmer integrates his/her own children into the farm setting. Janet Fitchen describes the dual roles of one mother as “she would often interrupt her milking work in the barn to sit down on a hay bale and nurse an infant or to talk to a baby in a playpen beside the cows”(25). Birthing and motherhood, integral to the creation of a farm and a family, transcend the apparent borders between human and beast while fostering a pure and promising interpretation of life.

                         POULTRY FARMING

Meat chickens, commonly called broilers, are floor-raised on litter such as wood shavings, peanut shells, and rice hulls, indoors in climate-controlled housing. Under modern farming methods, meat chickens reared indoors reach slaughter weight at 5 to 9 weeks of age. The first week of chickens life they can grow 300 percent of their body size, a nine week old chicken can average over 9 pounds in body weight. At nine weeks a hen will average around 7 pounds and a rooster will weigh around 12 pounds, having a nine pound average.

Broilers are not raised in cages. They are raised in large, open structures known as grow out houses. A farmer receives the birds from the hatchery at one day old. A grow out consist of 5 to 9 weeks according on how big the kill plant wants the chickens to be. These houses are equipped with mechanical systems to deliver feed and water to the birds. They have ventilation systems and heaters that function as needed. The floor of the house is covered with bedding material consisting of wood chips, rice hulls, or peanut shells. In some cases they can be grown over dry litter or compost. Because dry bedding helps maintain flock health, most growout houses have enclosed watering systems (“nipple drinkers”) which reduce spillage.^[20]

Keeping birds inside a house protects them from predators such as hawks and foxes. Some houses are equipped with curtain walls, which can be rolled up in good weather to admit natural light and fresh air. Most growout houses built in recent years feature “tunnel ventilation,” in which a bank of fans draws fresh air through the house.^[20]

Traditionally, a flock of broilers consist of about 20,000 birds in a growout house that measures 400/500 feet long and 40/50 feet wide, thus providing about eight-tenths of a square foot per bird. The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) states that the minimum space is one-half square foot per bird. More modern houses are often larger and contain more birds, but the floor space allotment still meets the needs of the birds. The larger the bird is grown the less chickens are put in each house, to give the bigger bird more space per square foot.^[20]

Because broilers are relatively young and have not reached sexual maturity, they exhibit very little aggressive conduct.^[20]

Chicken feed consists primarily of corn and soybean meal with the addition of essential vitamins and minerals. No hormones or steroids are allowed in raising chickens